On the other, there is the development of the capability to act independently from the United States, under the political umbrella of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), again within or without a Nato operational framework, dedicated to a more traditional – if somewhat ill-defined – "peacekeeping" role.

Von Wogau, chairman of the European Union parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence, has declared that these groups, assembled under the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), will equip the European Union in its own name to act as an autonomous military power, all in the context of threats defined by the European Security Strategy.

First, the politicians most associated with pushing ESDP as an alternative to NATO -- Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder -- have been replaced by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, who are far more pragmatic about cooperating with the U.S.